It’s nearly impossible to achieve any measurable search engine optimization (SEO) results without at least some link building.
The high-level view of link building strategies is simple enough; place or earn more links pointing back to your domain so your domain-level and page-level authority grow, at which point you’ll naturally rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
The truth is this exhaustive list of link building strategies should only be used to give your ideas.
It can all be intimidating and difficult for a link building newcomer, and frustrating to a seasoned veteran who just can’t break past their most recent traffic plateau.
These link building strategies include some of the best ways to get free backlinks.
We’ll also answer the following questions:
- What tactics should I focus on for my niche?
- What tactics should I avoid, or which are too costly or time-consuming to be worth my time? SEO pricing can be expensive, but repairing poor SEO is worse.
- What are the easiest ways to acquire quality backlinks?
- How do you make your blog posts and other on-site content irresistibly link worthy?
- How do you avoid spammy link building strategies?
- What are the best link building strategies for new websites?
- How long does it take for even the best link building strategies to work?
- Once you get a good system in place for link building, how do you scale it up?
- How many of of my backlink strategies should involve guest blogging or guest post outreach?
- Should I manually acquire high quality links or rely on passive link acquisition strategies?
- How do I effectively outsource my link building?
In this post, we delve into 77 link building strategies most likely to help you boost the visibility of your own site in the SERPs.
In the rest of this article, we’ll be exploring link building strategies in different categories, from earning backlinks naturally with attractive content to best practices for managing publisher relationships.
Curious about your site’s existing backlinks compared to your competitors?
Use our backlink checker to view your profile and get information about how you can improve.
These backlink strategies will help you ensure that the links you build are the highest possible quality:
Table of Contents
1. Quality > Quantity.
And quality is typically time-consuming and more expensive.
This first strategy is more about what you shouldn’t do.
Newcomers are often tempted to build as many links as possible, without putting much thought into which types of links they build or how they build them.
Before you even start link building, make sure you have a clear vision.
- What are you trying to accomplish?
- Which links will help you the most?
- What links could hurt?
- Based on technical keyword research, what phrases do you want to rank for?
- Have you developed an anchor text strategy for your outreach?
It’s much better to build a small number of extremely helpful links than a large number of links that might hurt you in the long run.
Be VERY picky about the links you work to acquire manually:
Work to be that guy or gal in your organization that won’t take or stand for acquiring garbage backlinks!
2. Relevance > Authority.
Good links exist in context.
A lengthy URL existing by itself in a forum comment isn’t going to get much positive attention; it isn’t helpful, valuable, or even natural.
But a link embedded as a citation to a resource page, or a solidly written article is a different story.
When building links, your first priority should be the content housing your link, and the context that justifies its existence.
Focus on:
- Links from quality sites
- Links embedded in quality content
- Links using appropriate anchor text (depending on your existing profile)
- Links that point to a relevant page to the content topic AND the referring domain
Without good content as a backbone, your link building strategy won’t get far.
3. High DA > Low DA (duh).
Google judges not just the number of linking domains to your site, but also the quality of those linking domains.
Domain authority (DA) is a relative measure of the trustworthiness of a given site.
Source: Moz
The higher the DA of a domain is, the more authority its links will pass.
Your rankings will increase with 1) enough high DA mixed with low DA sites and 2) enough time for those links to vest.
Accordingly, getting a link on a high-DA site is better than a comparable link on a low-DA site.
As an added bonus, high-DA sites tend to get more traffic on their own, which means they’ll have a higher likelihood of passing referral traffic your way.
4. Favor new domains and IP addresses over already-linked domains.
Links pass authority from one site to another, but there are diminishing returns for links on the same domain.
In other words, the first link you build on a 78 DA website will pass significant authority to your site, but the second link you build there will pass much, much less.
As a general rule, getting a link on a new domain is a better use of your time, even if its DA is slightly lower.
In this example, a link on a new 55 DA site will be superior to a second link on the 78 DA site.
Of course, this isn’t written in stone; even if you aren’t getting as much authority, new links on already-link domains will still increase your brand visibility and may forward additional referral traffic your way.
5. Link to a high-quality, internal page onsite.
You can technically link any page of your site, but it’s a good strategy to link to the best-written blog posts or otherwise most valuable content pages of your site.
This is useful for a few reasons. First, it strengthens the value of your link, meaning it’s more likely to be accepted by publishers and clicked by readers.
Second, it passes page-specific page authority (PA) to this page, increasing its ranking potential disproportionately to the other pages of your site.
Third, the referral traffic visitors you earn will form a much more favorable impression of your brand when they see this quality material (and you might have a better chance of converting them).
Fourth, one of the top SEO ranking factors is whether your page is “internal.” With that in mind, link to internal content!
6. Add value to user experience, not just anchor text.
What function is your link serving?
The best links exist to provide additional value to readers.
There are many possible approaches here, but you’ll need a good one if you want your link to succeed.
For example, your link can serve as additional reading material on a topic, or it could serve as a citation to back up the facts you report.
It could also provide resources in line with what a reader is seeking, or even add a humorous element to the article.
If a reader is happy to see this link, it’s a good link for your campaign.
7. Make sure your content is relevant and placed on relevant sites.
“Relevance” applies in two contexts here, and both are important.
- your guest blog post or offsite content need to be relevant to the publisher and the audience reading it; if it seems out of place, it either won’t get accepted or it won’t be read.
- the webpage you’re linking needs to be relevant to the article housing the link.
There’s some wiggle room here, but if your topic is too far off-base and not included on relevant websites to your website, it’s going to weaken quality of your link.
8. Place your link early in the article.
There’s some evidence to suggest that the higher up your link is in a page, the more authority it’s going to pass.
Links in the header or early in the body will be much more valuable than links in a sidebar or in the footer.
The more the link is buried in an article, the less impactful it will be, unless it’s a site wide footer link, but that’s its own animal.
If you can, try to get your link as high above the fold as possible.
This is also beneficial for referral traffic generation; early links tend to get more attention, increasing your brand visibility as well as total clicks.
9. Never include more than one link to your site in an article.
While it may be possible to include multiple contextually relevant links to your domain in the body of a single article, this is inadvisable as a strategy.
If you link to yourself multiple times, each subsequent link will pass less authority to your site, and if you link too much, you’ll flag the suspicions of both your publisher and Google’s search algorithm.
Focus on building one strong, relevant link to your domain instead, and feel free to include links to other domains.
10. Include descriptive anchor text.
Anchor text refers to the section of text in your article that “houses” the link you build (often highlighted in blue).
In the early days of SEO, the best strategy was to use anchor text that exactly matched your target keywords and phrases.
However, doing this now is counterproductive, both because keywords are less relevant (thanks to Google’s semantic search updates) and because excessive keyword use in your anchor text can harm your campaign.
Still, the text you use for your link anchors is an important consideration, but make sure you keep it natural:
Monitor the anchor text on your most important pages to understand whether your incoming links are natural. If not, you may need to engage in link building to smooth them out.
These days, your best strategy is to include anchors that effectively describe the content you’re linking, with phrasing that naturally blends with the rest of your article.
11. Avoid keyword stuffing
On that note, make sure you’re not keyword stuffing.
As a general rule, if you start with a firm idea of the exact match anchor text you want, you’re going to end up with unnatural phrasing.
Feel free to come up with a phrase adjacent to your target keywords, or contextually on topic, but your top priority should be using text in your link anchors that makes sense.
12. Include links to other high-quality sources.
If you want your link to stick (and be well-received by your readership), it’s in your best interest to include links to other high-quality domains in the body of your article.
This will make your brand look more authoritative in context, and perhaps more importantly, it will increase the likelihood of other people linking directly to your site if and when they research the topic your blog posts cover. In other words, it’s a useful trick to get more attention from researchers and writers on the web.
13. Don’t write off the possibility of nofollow link building.
By default, links are “dofollow,” which means Google’s web crawlers and search algorithm will consider them when making calculations and determining rankings.
While authority is only passed with dofollow links, Google has recently been pushing publishers to provide more clarity by tagging links based on their placement type.
However, it’s also possible to include a “nofollow” tag in the backend HTML code that prevents a link from being considered.
Some sites (especially high-DA publishers) intentionally make the majority of their links nofollow links to preserve their online reputation in Google’s eyes.
Because nofollow links won’t increase your authority directly, many link builders dismiss them as worthless.
However, nofollow links can be valuable; they’re still a source of brand visibility and referral traffic, and they may be your chance to make a good impression on a high-DA publisher, serving as a steppingstone to the dofollow link you’d prefer.
They’re also part of a natural backlink profile:
14. Don’t get fixated on link building quantity.
On some level, link building is a numbers game.
It’s hard to dispute that more links from more publishers will increase your authority and your rankings.
However, this shouldn’t be your motivating priority, especially in the early days of your link building campaign.
Instead, focus on building good links; the quantity will come in time.
Link Earning Strategies for More SEO Backlinks
One common approach to getting backlinks for your site is earning links passively.
The overarching goal here is to create onsite assets so interesting or valuable that other authorities naturally want to link to them.
These are some of the best link building tactics for the job:
15. Include original, reference-able stats in your core content.
If you want people to link to your blog posts, you need to give them a reason.
Think about the links you’d build in high-quality content of your own; you’ll likely link to sources that give you numerical statistics, original research, or unique arguments that aren’t all over the web.
If you include these points of reference in your own work, it will be far more likely to be cited by other authors.
Conducting original research can be cost- and time-intensive, but you can guarantee access to data no one else has; as long as those data are valuable, you’ll almost certainly earn links.
16. Utilize social media for all it’s worth.
There’s one small issue with pumping your content full of referenceable stats; if nobody can find or discover your content in the first place, they’ll never see what you wrote.
To combat this, lean on social media.
Sharing your content is free, and if you have a decent subscriber base, you can instantly make it available to hundreds, if not thousands of people.
Or you can use a service like Quuu Promote:
Use a service like Quuu Promote for syndicating content across social media channels.
While you’re at it, engage with your followers and try to attract new followers so your future shares are even more powerful.
17. Post in niche forums regularly and comment on other posts.
You’ll earn more links if you’re known as a reputable source.
If people in the industry know and respect you, they’ll read your work routinely, and they’ll be willing to link to your material in their own work.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to find niche forums and online communities where professionals like you gather to discuss industry topics.
Make regular posts, answer community questions, and engage yourself in active discussions; over time, you’ll build a reputation, and people will take your content more seriously.
18. Provide your work to influencers who might have an interest in it.
This link building tactic is something of a hybrid between asking for links and earning them naturally.
The idea is to find an influencer in your field (i.e., someone with a large social following or someone known for producing great content), then provide that influencer with a piece of your content you think they’d appreciate.
Find influencers in your niche with many followers. The purpose is not for social media links, but to get the word out so, blogs will also link to your great content.
For example, let’s say a leading authority in your industry makes a social media post about the seeming decline of sales in the industry.
You can use this opportunity to send them a case study you did on long-term industry growth; if they like it and find it valuable, they’ll probably link to it in future content (or share it with their followers).
19. Collaborate on posts.
You can try something similar by collaborating on posts.
Find another expert in your field, and work together on a shared piece of content.
You can write a blog post together, or each contribute pieces of research that one author stitches together in a finished narrative.
If you host the content on your site, you can be sure your partner will want to generate links to it; after all, it will work in both your best interests.
20. Guest post and invite guest post authors.
Similarly, it’s beneficial to invite more guest post authors to your site.
Ask for contributions from guest post authors as a mutually beneficial backlink exchange; they get the visibility of your blog platform, and you get the value of their work.
But, be aware, guest blogging has its limitations and has been viewed negatively by Google since time immemorial.
If you have trouble finding guest post authors willing to contribute, consider offering a trade and guest posting on their site.
Your new guest blogging authors will likely want to reference their own work (with backlinks) in the future, or spend effort to popularize it; accordingly, you’ll earn more links.
Plus, guest blogging helps you to have more diverse, authoritative voices across your various blog posts.
21. Flesh out your personal brand.
Spend some time fleshing out the details of your authors’ personal brands.
If you’re new to link building, start with one. Make sure this author has a clear realm of expertise, and include details on their career in an author profile.
This author should be guest posting regularly, engaging with their social media community, and connecting with other professionals.
Over time, they’ll build a better reputation, and the content they post, share, and distribute will carry more weight; in other words, it will be more likely to build more links.
22. Spend more time networking with other people.
This has countless benefits; it will increase your number of social media followers, increase your total readership, give you access to more guest blogging authors, and introduce you to more guest posting opportunities for your own strategy.
The bigger your collective network is, the more likely you’ll be to earn links.
But beware of begging and definitely beware of forcing:
Strategies for Approaching Link Building
These strategies are high-level approaches you can use to increase your link building effectiveness:
23. Mix up strategies between link building and link earning.
Link earning is undeniably safe; it’s practically impossible to get penalized by Google if you’re just passively earning links, but it’s also inconsistent and unreliable, making it difficult to scale.
Link building is consistent and reliable, but it takes significant skill and effort to make the strategy work, especially over long timescales.
The best approach for most businesses is to use a blend of link building strategies and link earning strategies, capitalizing on the best qualities of each.
24. Consider topics in addition to keywords.
Many newcomers to SEO spend most of their strategic effort choosing and prioritizing keywords and keyword phrases.
While this is beneficial in many ways (see our section on “anchor text”), it can also compromise your efforts.
The big issue here is that Google’s Hummingbird update (as well as subsequent updates) utilizes semantic search capabilities; rather than scrounging for content with a one-to-one keyword relationship with the search query, Google works to understand the user’s query and find content that’s on-topic.
Accordingly, while it’s still beneficial to perform keyword research, you should also consider and research high-level topics and families of keywords.
25. Create amazing on-site pages.
Whether you want to earn links naturally or build them yourself, you’ll need amazing onsite pages to succeed.
High-quality onsite content and blog posts will make people more eager to link to you, and will make your links “stickier”—in other words, publishers will be less likely to remove or alter them.
Plus, remember that all your link building strategies will generate traffic to your site.
If you get referral visitors, you’ll want them to be left with a good impression of your brand.
Strong blog posts and other website pages are the only way to accomplish your link building goals.
No one legitimate is going to link to a poorly created blog post.
26. Prioritize your best onsite pages.
As you build links, you generate domain authority for your entire site, but also page authority for individual pages.
If you want to make the most of your link building strategy, you should prioritize building links to your best onsite pages.
If you have a comprehensive guide or an amazing piece of research to show off, build several links to it; this piece will rank higher and get more traffic, ultimately benefitting your brand in multiple ways.
The caveat here is that you need to mix up your links as well; link building exclusively to one onsite page can look suspicious.
27. Monitor (and mimic) your competitors’ link building strategies.
You aren’t the only company building backlinks for SEO; chances are, most of your competitors are doing the same.
You can learn a lot by observing and mimicking their strategies.
The easiest way to start here is with a tool like Moz’s Link Explorer; here, you can enter a competitor’s domain and quickly generate a list of all the links pointing to that domain on the web.
Check those links to see where they’ve been built, and where they’re pointing.
You’ll discover new publishers you can work with, and possibly some weaknesses in your link building strategy that you can exploit for competitive dominance.
28. Steer clear of link schemes.
It’s tempting to build links quickly and by any means necessary, but many newcomers with this attitude end up falling for link schemes (or willingly engaging with them).
A link scheme is basically any attempt to build low-quality links in an exclusive effort to increase your ranking.
There are many varieties here, including spamming links, participating in link circles, and heavily exchanging links with one or two other participants.
Link schemes are not only a short-term link building strategy, but they are also Google penalty magnets, so avoid them at all costs, and be wary of any link building company that promises immediate results (or if they have an offer that seems too good to be true).
29. Work with a professional link building agency.
That said, a professional link building company could help you develop your strategy faster and more reliably.
Expert link building agencies understand the nuances of the strategy, and make content, link quality, and long-term relationships with publishers their priorities. They have access to far more resources and more specialists than you do, and while they tend to charge a relatively high fee, they also tend to give you a high return on your investment (ROI).
Just make sure you do your due diligence; work with an SEO company that has a good reputation and investigate their strategic approach so you know what you’re getting.
And, if you’re an SEO agency yourself, it may make sense to find a company that will allow you to outsource SEO and your link building as a white label SEO reseller.
30. Start small and scale up.
Even if you’re eager to grow and you’re willing to invest lots of time and money in your link building strategy, it’s a good idea to start with a small scale and work your way up.
Building a small number of links with a minimal link building investment will help you discover the best approaches for your brand, without spending lots of money to do it.
When you have a good bank of onsite content, knowledge of the top publishers in your industry, and a sense for your top priorities, you can gradually expand the scope of your efforts.
Get a quality standard operating procedure on how you consistently build links and replicate that link building strategy among an internal or external outsourced link building team.
31. Measure your domain authority.
You’ll probably be excited to check on your search engine rankings as you develop your link building strategy.
But while this is a good metric to measure and improve, it may not be a direct reflection of the progress you’re making.
It’s also important to measure your domain authority (DA) regularly.
The higher this climbs, the more likely all your pages will be to rank higher in searches.
It’s also a good indicator of whether your link building tactics are working; you should see steady progress as long as you’re committed to building more powerful links and a greater number of them.
Just be aware that as your domain authority grows, it becomes harder to advance; for example, it’s very easy to go from DA 10 to DA 20, but getting from DA 80 to DA 90 is slow and challenging.
There are several link building tools that can help you measure your domain authority, including the Link Explorer tool we referenced in point 27.
32. Measure your page authority.
Similarly, you’ll want to measure the page-level authority (PA) of your best pages. If you’re trying to prioritize an exemplary piece of content, or if there’s a money page you want to earn more traffic, you need to know that your extra links are working.
If your page authority becomes stagnant, it means something is going wrong.
33. Evaluate organic traffic, referral traffic and other factors.
Domain authority and page authority are two of the strongest indicators that your strategy is working, but there are many other metrics to consider. For example, you can measure the referral traffic generated by each of your links; this will help you determine which of your publishers are most valuable for direct traffic.
Sometimes, a publisher may have a relatively low DA, but the links you build forward a ton of traffic to your site, making up the difference.
Also pay attention to your keyword rankings, organic traffic, and even direct traffic to your site; the more metrics you measure, the more of a comprehensive picture you’ll see.
34. Estimate link value and update your strategy as needed.
Whenever you build a link with a new publisher, try to estimate the total value of that link.
Try to isolate its effects on your domain- and page-level authority, determine page views of the main blog post, and measure referral traffic.
Compare and combine these metrics to estimate how valuable this link is and compare your conclusion to other links you’ve built.
Then, adjust your link building strategy for the future; build more links on the best publishers, and find more publishers like them.
Don’t waste any more time on links or publishers that aren’t returning much value your way.
Content-Focused Link Building Strategies
Different types of content have different advantages and disadvantages when it comes to optimizing your link building strategies.
The content types that follow are examples of content sources that tend to attract the best links (and attract them consistently).
35. “Best of” lists.
“Best of” lists, or listicles, tend to be numbered lists that collect some of the best or most notable items within a given topic.
They’re appealing because they promise the reader a concise read; something like “10 tips to improve your onion chopping experience” invites the reader in with the understanding they can glance at those tips at a high level and still learn something.
It’s also easy to build a link within one of these points if you use this archetype for a guest post.
36. Surveys and other original research.
Original research is extremely powerful for attracting links, but it can also be expensive to conduct.
A good, inexpensive method of original research is conducting surveys; get a few hundred people within a niche to respond to a short survey, collect the data, and publish it on your site.
Now you have statistics that no one else has, and you can attract or build links as you see fit.
Throw in some visuals on the data and you’ll have an amazing onsite asset.
In fact, we have found that original research, published well, is one of the best link building strategies for scaling natural, inbound links from other websites.
37. Controversial opinion pieces.
Most brands are reluctant to write controversial opinion blog post pieces, for fear of alienating their target audience.
However, taking a controversial stance can be great for your link building campaign, so long as you do it respectfully and with hard evidence.
Being resolute in your opinion and sharing it, can also help you gain credibility giving you a boost for outranking other bigger brands online.
And as long as your topic is debatable, it will invite lots of people to discuss and share the topic.
All those comments and shares will make your work more visible, making it easier to generate links.
38. Original news reporting.
If you have access to original news in your industry, work to be the first ones to report it.
If your customers and other readers grow to trust you as a first-line publisher, they’re going to stay glued to your blog post—and link to your news articles the moment they get published.
39. Newsjacking.
Of course, if you don’t have immediate access to industry news, there’s another way to make use of newsworthy content: newsjacking (not to be confused with brand jacking).
The general idea here is to read up on some event in the news, then write a piece of content with your own spin on it.
Consolidate details from multiple different sources to create an article with comprehensive coverage, or include your unique opinion on the news.
40. Initial topic exploration (or reviews).
Being the first to explore a topic can also be powerful, since you won’t face much competition, but it’s hard to find a topic that’s never been covered.
For example, you might review the latest tech gadget the moment it becomes available to consumers, or you might analyze a new trend in your industry.
41. Case studies and whitepapers.
Case studies and whitepapers are both long-form content archetypes filled with analytical information.
Case studies tend to focus on real events, individuals, or organizations, while whitepapers provide more of an overview or hypothetical examination.
Either way, meaty forms of content like these tend to attract a ton of links.
42. Engaging content.
Any piece of content that encourages people to interact can be valuable, since it will attract more likes, comments, shares, and visibility on its own.
Engaging content comes in many forms, but one of the most valuable is a contest; a contest usually makes some request of your readers (like submitting a photo or other piece of content of their own), and is very compelling if there’s a unique reward.
43. Glossaries and indexes.
Glossaries, indexes, and other forms of encyclopedic material are fantastic pieces of content, especially for complex industries.
These pieces are highly informative, dense, and evergreen meaning they won’t ever expire or lose relevance.
Keep them updated, and you’re bound to get lots of local backlink citations.
44. Educational content and how-to guides.
This is usually one of the first archetypes of content new link builders try to use, since it’s fairly accessible.
You’re an expert in at least one field, so write a blog post about what you know; teach your readers something new, or provide them with high-level education on a given topic.
Step-by-step instructions and guides that include images are especially well-received.
This has been done ad-nauseam as a link building strategy, but it still works if done well.
45. Entertaining/funny content.
Though somewhat riskier, you can also attract links via entertaining content.
Hilarious and/or fun videos tend to get lots of shares and are frequently cited in online compilations.
A nut shot compilation will always bring some laughs.
The trouble is, there’s no formula for what people find fun or humorous, so if you miss the mark, it could hurt more than help.
46. Infographics.
Infographics capitalize on people’s desire for information and their love for digestible visuals.
Visual content remains some of the most shared types of content on the web, so a sufficiently detailed and aesthetically pleasing infographic can help you earn dozens of links.
Infographic link building, while still helpful, was a much more effective link building strategy five years ago, but it has admittedly diminished over time.
47. Quote graphics and other shareables.
Along similar lines, you can create a “quote graphic,” which is usually a photo or illustration with a concise quote from a thought leader in your industry (or other authority).
Pretty much any sharable visual piece of content that provides entertainment or information can work well for link building.
48. Directories and/or consolidated content.
There’s a ton of content on the web, so users love to see directories and other forms of content organization.
Compiling a list of your favorite resources, guides on a given topic, or bits of information can make you the go-to resource on the subject.
49. Interviews.
Interviews have several advantages as a type of content for building links.
For starters, you can publish interviews in multiple different mediums, such as video, audio, or a written transcript.
You’ll also likely be interviewing people from outside your organization; those people will be incentivized to link to the finished product and share it on their own social media platforms.
It’s a built-in boost to your initial distribution.
50. Memes.
Memes are dangerous territory. Come up with a good template or use an existing popular template in an interesting and amusing way, and you could go viral, earning links from all over the web.
Try too hard or miss the point of the meme, and you could become a laughingstock.
Of course, even if people are laughing at you, they might build links to you anyway, so it could easily be worth the risk.
51. Webinars.
Many companies try to promote webinars, to varying degrees of success.
Webinars are interactive video presentations, generally provided to novices on a given subject.
To be successful, your webinar has to cover an in-demand topic, be hosted by an expert, and either be free or worth what you’re charging for it.
Interactive elements, such as live Q&A, can improve your performance, and making the webinar permanently available (i.e., not exclusively live-streamed) is ideal.
52. Tests and quizzes.
As you’ve seen from many of the items on this list, interactivity is highly successful in encouraging shares, and there are few types of content more interactive than tests and quizzes.
Depending on the nature of your industry, you could come up with a calculator for your products and services, a quiz to test someone’s knowledge on a subject (like financial literacy), or something sillier, like “which tech CEO are you?”
53. Videos (in combination with any of the above approaches).
Videos can be incredibly powerful types of content, especially when used in combination with any of the content types above.
Video interviews, video news, and video lists can all be powerful for generating links.
However, you’ll need to think carefully about how you publish and distribute your video content; if you host your videos on YouTube (as most companies do), any direct links the video earns will pass authority to YouTube, not necessarily your own site.
Accordingly, it’s a common link building tactic to host the YouTube video on a page of your own site, so you can earn links directly to your domain.
You may also consider using these as guest blogging content material.
Publisher/Partner Strategies for Link Building
If you’re pursuing direct link building strategies, most of your efforts will revolve around guest blogging and guest posting.
The idea is to work with external publishers of sites with high domain authority, providing them with content that their audiences want to see.
When you submit the content, you’ll include a high-quality link back to your site, assuming there’s a relevant website that aligns with your content.
These strategies can help you in this endeavor:
54. Start with small-time publishers and work your way up.
Higher-DA publishers will reward you with more powerful links, so it’s tempting to prioritize them in your guest posting pursuits.
However, high-DA publishers tend to have much higher standards for the work they accept, and may not be accessible to an unproven author or brand.
Instead, focus on the publishers accessible to you; do a good job for them, publish lots of content, and eventually you’ll build a good enough reputation and a big enough portfolio that you can start climbing the ladder.
Local publishers and niche-focused publishers are great stepping stones on your way to nationally renown authorities.
55. Keep things focused on one personal brand.
Some companies try to write and publish blog post material under their brand name, but it’s usually better to publish under the name of an individual in your company.
Over time, you can publish under multiple names, but for now, just focus on one.
Focusing on an individual instead of the brand will make you more trustworthy and open up more publication opportunities.
And building one personal brand before you build others will help you consolidate your progress.
56. Prioritize the needs of a publisher’s readership.
You have some selfish motivations in getting published, but if you want to get published and keep getting published, your priority should be on your publisher’s readership.
Editors are interested in distributing the content their readers find most valuable.
Accordingly, they’re only going to accept your submissions if their readers will enjoy them.
Get to know the demographics of your target publisher, and see what kind of content they like best.
You may have to compromise some of your other priorities to make this relationship work.
Usually, you can find a topic that both presents you with an inbound linking opportunity and appeals to the target readership.
57. Find the editor (or someone in charge).
If you’re reaching out to a new publisher, it’s best to find an individual (rather than submitting a generic contact form).
Look at the “About” or “Contact” page of the website to try and find the contact information for the editor, content manager, or other authority.
If it’s not available here, try to find them on social media networks like LinkedIn.
Making a personal appeal is always better than blindly writing to an organization, especially if you can find something in common with them and achieve mutually beneficial goals.
58. Send a warm email with a compelling, original subject line.
When sending your first email, it’s important to stand out and immediately make your message seem valuable.
Editors are typically very busy, with inboxes flooded with generic, unappealing requests.
If you want a chance at having your email opened, you need to have a compelling, original subject line; come up with something they haven’t seen a million times already, and make it clear what the value is.
Something like “New statistics on entrepreneurship – would your readers be interested?”
59. Prove that you’re an avid reader of this publisher.
In the body of your email, it’s important to show that you know this publisher.
If you’ve never read this publisher’s work before, the editor may not want to work with you.
If your email reads as if you sent the same template to 20 different people, it’s going to get rejected.
Highlight and compliment a handful of posts you’ve enjoyed in the past, and make it obvious that you know this publisher’s area of specialty.
If you use this as one of your link building strategies, make sure you’re actually genuine as site owners can smell it.
60. Pitch an initial post that aligns with similar content on their site.
At some point in your message, you’ll need to make a pitch. It doesn’t have to be fancy—usually, a couple of concise sentences describing your idea are plenty.
Pitch a tentative headline if you can, and describe the body of the article you plan to write (or let our blog writing services pitch it and write it for you).
Some publishers have specific requirements for the formatting or presentation of new pitches, so do some research before you submit, and adhere to those rules as best you can.
61. Explain why this pitch will work.
It’s also helpful to explain why you think this would be valuable for the publisher’s readership.
You might note that there are similar blog posts or articles already on the site, but it doesn’t cover the topic from this angle.
Or you might note that the publisher’s target demographics tend to be very interested in material like this, citing statistics to back your claim.
If you’ve written successful guest posts on other publishers, you may want to provide metrics like how many shares or comments those posts received.
62. Follow up politely if you don’t hear back.
Like I said, editors are busy people—and they just get busier as you climb the DA ladder.
It’s normal to not hear a response for a few days. If you don’t hear back after 3-4 business days, send a polite follow-up email; ask them to confirm receipt of the pitch, and ask if they think it needs any modification.
63. Comply with all editor requests.
In many cases, the editor may respond to your pitch with a recommendation for how to make it a better fit.
In other cases, you’ll provide a written draft, which the editing team will review; at this point, you may get additional feedback for how to improve the piece.
While you may not necessarily agree with the suggestions they make, if your priority is getting published, it’s best to make the requested changes.
For example, you may be forced to remove a link or replace it with a nofollow link; while not ideal, it’s often worth making this initial compromise.
The more polite, agreeable, and fast you are when editing the article, the more likely they’ll be to work with you in the future—or recommend you for other opportunities.
Make their life easy, and they’ll respond in kind.
64. Leverage your new guest blogging author spot.
If your first article is successful, your editor/publisher will likely be eager to work with you again.
They may invite you to pitch some new ideas, or eventually, set you up with a recurring guest blogging author spot.
If you find yourself in this position, try to take advantage of it.
Highlight your position when making pitches to new publishers, and try to publish follow-up pieces here—even if you don’t end up linking back to your site in every new submission.
65. Nurture your publisher-based community.
Editors are fantastic connections to make, but readers are even more important.
When publishing work on a new publisher, spend some time responding to the comments that (inevitably) roll in.
If you’re an active presence in discussions and you positively reinforce the community, people will be more excited to read your work.
They’ll also start following you on social media, which can lead to a bigger following—and one more reason for bigger, better publishers to accept your work.
66. Maintain old relationships.
As you start to scale your link building strategy and work with higher-DA, national-level publishers, your old publishers may start to seem less valuable by comparison.
However, it’s a good idea to maintain those old relationships, posting content occasionally on all your guest post accounts and checking in with editors on a periodic basis.
Staying in good standing with a wide network of publishers will maximize the number of opportunities you eventually have, and boost your reputation as an author even further.
The only exception here is problematic relationships (e.g., a very difficult or impolite editor, a practically nonexistent readership, etc.)—feel free to cut those out entirely.
Miscellaneous “Bonus” Link Building Strategies
These strategies don’t exactly fit with any of the other categories in this comprehensive guide, but they may still be helpful in earning you more links, stronger links, or more consistent links:
67. Set up 301 redirects for old, outdated or broken links.
Occasionally, you’ll need to get rid of a page, either because it’s no longer relevant or because you’re retooling it into something else.
If you change the URL, all the links you built to that page in the past will become broken, rendering them practically useless for your brand.
You can combat broken links by setting up 301 redirects, which take all traffic from the old URL and redirect that traffic to a new URL.
As a link building strategy, broken link building in this way can be highly effective.
As long as you’re sending people to a new, relevant site page, Google is completely fine with using broken link building as an effective backlink tactic—it even encourages it.
68. Keep your old content updated.
If you’re following best practices for content marketing, much of your content will be “evergreen,” meaning it’s likely to remain relevant for a long time, if not forever.
However, even evergreen content could stand to be periodically updated.
Revisit your older material and make sure it’s relevant, and be willing to add new facts, updated old statistics, and make tweaks to make sure it’s better suited for the modern era.
It’s much cheaper and more efficient to keep your old content updated, relevant and link-generating than to only create new ones.
69. Use HARO (Help a Reporter Out).
Help a Reporter Out, or HARO, is a resource used by journalists and writers when they need information from a specific source.
Email example of a HARO pitch for finding link opportunities.
Browse this periodically; you may find a request for an expert like you to provide insights on a given topic.
If you indeed help this reporter out, they’ll likely credit you for your contributions, including a link back to your site and/or author profile.
Depending on the publisher they use, this can be massively valuable.
70. Volunteer or donate.
You can also usually earn a link by donating to a nonprofit organization, or volunteering your time or services.
For example, you might donate your services to a fundraiser for a local organization.
When advertising the event on their website, this organization will likely reference your business with a link. If you donate money to an organization, they may include a link to your site on their donor page.
71. Make Wikipedia edits.
In rare cases, you may be able to build links to your onsite content to serve as references on Wikipedia articles.
Wikipedia is open to edits from practically any user; however, be aware that their community standards are very strict.
If you include a link to your site, make sure your content is highly relevant, with specific information that’s actually valuable for the article.
It’s also a good idea to make occasional Wikipedia edits elsewhere, so it doesn’t look like the sole purpose of your account is to link back to your site.
While Wikipedia may not help you from an SEO perspective, it can be a great source of backlink referral traffic.
72. Engage in a broken link building campaign.
As you read content on the web, you’ll likely encounter broken links—links that send you to a 404 page, or links that are no longer relevant.
Treat these as an opportunity for engaging in broken link building services.
If you have an Ahrefs subscription, you can start by checking for broken links there:
If not Ahrefs, would suggest using our broken link checker tool:
Use a broken link checker to check for broken backlinks.
If and when you find a broken link, reach out to the authors, publishers or site owners with a suggestion for a quality backlink to replace the broken link; assuming you have a piece of content that fulfills this requirement, your broken link request has a high probability of being met.
A broken link building strategy is one of the best ways to acquire backlinks from pages on relevant websites that are appropriately aged and have existing page authority.
Similarly, you can engage in a 404 link reclamation campaign.
73. Leverage Quora and other services.
Quora is a question-and-answer service where individual users can ask questions, and other users can answer them.
You can think of it like an FAQ version of Wikipedia in this way.
Create an account and start posting answers to questions in your specific industry; occasionally, you’ll find an opportunity to link back to an article on your site, either to cite a resource page, a statistic or for further reading.
As always, make sure you aren’t spamming links; instead, prioritize good answers, and include a mix of links to different authorities.
If you consistently give good answers (which users can upvote), your account will become more prominent, and your answers (and thus your links) will get even more visibility.
74. Offer corrections.
Occasionally, you’ll find mistakes on pieces of offsite content.
They may cite a statistic or other resource pages that are out of date, or make an argument that isn’t quite accurate.
When you find these instances, offer to make a correction—especially if you have an onsite article that already features the correct information.
75. Offer to update old content.
You can do something similar by offering to update old content.
For example, let’s say you find an article with a title like “How to Buy a Used Car in 2010” that hasn’t been touched or updated since.
If you can sell another site on updating outdated content (showing of course that doing so is likely to increase their rankings if done well), then it can be a great strategy for earning more links.
You can reach out to the site owner and offer to write a new version that’s updated for 2020.
When you write this content (or revise what’s already there), you’ll get the chance to include a link back to your site in some way.
76. Guest speak.
If you know who to talk to, you can easily find guest speaking opportunities in your city. If and when you do, take them.
Guest speaking gives you a chance to speak in front of like-minded professionals and show off your expertise.
You’ll also get the chance to present your blog posts to a new audience.
Assuming you spend some time networking after, this can easily lead to a new influx of people reading your onsite material, and possibly new opportunities for publishing or content collaboration.
Our boy Samuel Edwards is the most prolific on our team for speaking engagements:
77. Create and sustain a community.
One of the best things you can do for your link building strategy is create and sustain a community.
You want people to actively engage with your content, sharing it, commenting on it, and reading it no matter which site owners you use.
The more active fans you have, the easier it will be to find new publishing opportunities, the more links you’ll earn, and the faster your online presence will grow.
The best ways to build a community are to engage with your readers directly, give your readers a platform for comments and discussion, and network with new people constantly.
Ready to Start Building Backlinks?
Are you interested in using link building to improve your site’s visibility, and get more organic traffic than you ever thought possible?
These strategies will be a good start, but if you want reliable, long-term results, it’s in your best interest to work with a seasoned SEO company.
Get in touch through one of our various locations, and we’ll set you up with one of our dedicated account managers, who will provide you with a free consultation and an assessment of your current needs.
From there, we can put together a custom link building strategy that works perfectly for your brand.
And, for agency resellers, we also offer you the opportunity sell SEO to resell SEO or white label SEO solutions.
Tim holds expertise in building and scaling sales operations, helping companies increase revenue efficiency and drive growth from websites and sales teams.
When he's not working, Tim enjoys playing a few rounds of disc golf, running, and spending time with his wife and family on the beach...preferably in Hawaii.
Over the years he's written for publications like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Marketing Land, Search Engine Journal, ReadWrite and other highly respected online publications. Connect with Tim on Linkedin & Twitter.
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